Aiming high!

As Colin Todd continued his summer recruitment drive he told envious rivals: "We are holding onto our best players."

Fired by a burning ambition to become a force in the top flight and armed with unprecedented amounts of transfer cash, Wanderers no longer feel threatened by the big-spending vultures.

They are still searching for a striker and could also add a centre-half to their squad before the season starts, but the £4 million investment in Neil Cox and Robbie Elliott has already signalled their intent to compete at the top level.

Now the announcement that Alan Thompson has signed a new, long-term contract has underlined the point.

Leeds United wanted the talented 23-year-old midfielder, who still had a year of his existing contract to run. But the new deal, thrashed out as the promotion season reached its spectac ular climax, has secured his services up to the year 2000.

Todd, who is also working on new agreements with other key members of his squad, says the Thompson deal has sent out all the right signals.

"It is important that Alan Thompson stays at Bolton Wanderers," he stressed. "He never wanted to leave and getting into the Premiership obviously helped matters.

"But there had been a lot of rumour around town that, with Neil Cox and Robbie Elliott coming in, we were getting ready to sell Tommo.

"That is definitely not the case and it's important supporters know that he is staying."

Ironically, Thompson is preparing to move into the house Sasa Curcic left behind when he quit Wanderers for Aston Villa in a £4 million transfer last summer. Having previously sold Jason McAteer and Alan Stubbs for fees totalling £8 million, the club was accused by critical supporters of lacking ambition by cashing in on their top stars.

Bouncing straight back into the Premiership at the first attempt answered those critics and Todd now wants Wanderers to be seen as a club capable of holding on to its star names and not vulnerable to Premiership asset strippers.

Thompson says that is why he decided to commit himself to the club long-term.

"When I went to see the manager at the end of the season I wanted assurances that they were ambitious and were prepared to spend big money to rival the top five or six clubs in the Premiership," he explained.

"I want to see us compete with the likes of Aston Villa. The manager told me about the type of players he was trying to sign. He mentioned a few names and he's been true to his word.

"It's incredible how far the club has come in the four years since I came here. Signing Robbie shows the ambition of the club. You can see we are going places.

"Robbie says he senses the same buzz that there was when things took off at Newcastle. I left when that was just starting to happen under Kevin Keegan and wasn't fortunate to be part of it. But the way things are going here, I think Bolton can do the same as Newcastle."

Thompson, who played with Elliott in the England U-21s saw his international progress stall when he and Wanderers struggled in the Premiership last time round. But he is tipping his fellow Geordie for a place in Glenn Hoddle's squad and aims to be there alongside him.

He said: "The World Cup is coming up next summer and, if we can have a good season, there is no reason why we shouldn't be in the reckoning.

"Robbie's good enough to play left-back for England and I have my own ambitions too."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.